I like the guy, and I do think he may have been stiffed last weekend – I reckon had it not been a championship race they’d have called it a tie. Man, he is gonna be so pissed seeing Remco strutting in the Euro colors on his home turf on Saturday!

Five years in a row, the end of the season belonged to one man, but it won’t be 6 straight. Il Lombardia on Saturday 10 October is wide open.

It’s a hell of a Monument, ya know!

239 km from Bergamo to Como, 4,600 m of climbing and nine climbs. The direction is reversed from last year and the finale is the part that should matter most. Madonna del Ghisallo (8.6 km at 6.2%) comes with about 60 km to go. Then San Fermo della Battaglia (2.7 km at 7.2%) with 27 km to go. Then Civiglio (4.2 km at 9.7%) with about 17 km to go, and a second San Fermo with just over 5 km left.

THE TOP THREE

Remco Evenepoel is the man to beat, yes, and he seems so taut these days, so chippy! He’s the European champion [cough], and he skipped the Euros time trial to save himself for this one.

Giulio Ciccone. He lost the European title by 0.0028 seconds and has been asking to see the photo finish on the real line ever since. “Remco was the strongest rider yesterday,” he said, and he added that if the picture confirms the verdict, “there is nothing else to add.” Then he made the huge mistake of re-watching it ‘a hundred times’ and it’s fecked with his head. He’ll be up for this one for sure.

Tom Pidcock looks real good too, just lost out the other day to that Jarno Widar (what a finish!) at Tre Valli Varesine (say that in an Italian accent, it’s fun), and Civiglio and the second San Fermo suit him.

But there’s some hot stuff on the bench too…

THE OUTSIDERS

Paul Seixas, Matteo Jorgenson, Isaac del Toro and Davide Piganzoli, who has just won the Giro dell’Emilia. Any of them could slip clear on Civiglio while the big names watch each other.

THE CP TIP

I’m going with Ciccone. It’ll be good for him to erase the memory of last weekend and I like his style, tough, honest.